Acknowledgement, Respect, Truth and Reconciliation
I live on the land of the Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw. I respectfully acknowledge that I live & walk on the land of the unceded ancestral home of the Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw, Secwépemc Nation. I ‘m grateful for their enduring stewardship of these lands, waters, and relations since time immemorial.”
Acknowledgement, Respect, Truth, Reconciliation.
These are serious, heavy words. Acknowledging the long, unbroken history and ownership of Indigenous peoples who cared for the land and waters for thousands of years is the first step in reconciling the truth. They are also words, uttered by our government, are empty and hollow.
The language of truth and reconciliation are serious, heavy words. Acknowledgment calls out historical truths, ongoing injustices, and the deep responsibilities of indigenous peoples tied to the earth. It’s recognition of indigenous domain over the land and waters of the land we call Canada. It’s taking responsibility for the dispossession of Canada’s first peoples, the horrors revealed of the residential schools system, the missing and murdered indigenous girls and women and children found buried in shallow graves, Above acknowledgement, recognition and knowledge, truth and reconciliation should be an apology.
The overwhelming response by non indigenous Canadians is to deny any responsibility for an ongoing genocide. We fail to recognize all white people are of European descent. It was white Europe that sailed across the ocean to put claim to a land that belonged to another peoples.
It was white Europeans that maimed, murdered, raped, stole, tortured and pillaged for possession of some high end real estate.
Colonialism is an ongoing process, not an event. Society, capitalist corporations, and government continue to perpetrate a system that’s sole purpose is to remove and restrict indigenous sovereignty and exploit traditional lands.
Settlers from Europe crossed a vast ocean and violently robbed indigenous nations of their culture, language land & water. We even took their children and we haven’t stopped.
Canada is a wealthy nation. It also came at the expense of another peoples. Our prosperity is inextricably linked with the dispossession, displacement, and systemic marginalization of Indigenous peoples that has created enormous lasting socio-economic disparities.
Economic gain and territorial control drove the dispossession of Indigenous peoples in Canada. European settlers sought land for communities and rich natural resources, including gold, timber, minerals, and fisheries. To secure this expansion and cement colonial authority, Canada used the Indian Act and reserves to marginalize First Nations, while targeting Inuit and Métis groups with separate, equally oppressive tactics.
Non indigenous Canadians have benefited greatly from our violent past. The theft of Indigenous lands and resources directly built the modern Canadian economy.
The Indian Act dictated daily life for registered First Nations people by stripping the of their rights to vote, hire lawyers, and own private land. Unburdened by these legal barriers, non-Indigenous Canadians freely built businesses, accumulated capital, and passed down generational wealth.
Privilege isn’t something just the wealthy enjoy. It provides a systemic advantage of one people over another. This doesn’t mean that we are immune to poverty, trauma or hardship. The difference is that we have no specific barrier to our plight. The system doesn’t actively work against us based on skin color. The mere fact of being white makes our road much less perilous.
We enjoy a wealth of systemic protections. Whiteness inherently grants systemic representation and a presumption of innocence. Poverty limits a white person’s access to jobs or housing, but they are not systematically discarded because of racial discrimination.
159 years ago, a country was born and built on the foundation of privilege. We are still in pursuit of the same thing we pursued 159 years ago. The structural goals of resource extraction and territorial control are the same; the only things that have changed are the methods. The tools of our violent past have successfully segued into legal, political, and financial tools. It achieves the same goals under the cover of the rule of law. It’s more palpable to us; it allows us to remove and absolve ourselves of a crime against humanity.
The Permanent Peoples Tribunal was founded in 1979 to continue the work of the Russell Tribunal II on Latin American dictatorships. It was founded on the principles of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples. Its not s no makeshift protest group, but an respected international tribunal founded by legal scholars and Nobel laureates to provide a formal, evidence-based venue for justice when state courts fail.
The 57th session placed Canada under a global spotlight, focusing entirely on ongoing state abuses. Its mandate was to investigate Canada’s systemic role in the genocide and disappearance of Indigenous children. Their findings alone should have shocked white Canada. Canada has explicitly declined to participate in or formally address the findings of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. No acknowledgement, no defence, no nothing. It’s not bad enough that our past is built on genocide or that we still continue this practice. What makes it worse is the indifference exhibited by the government.
What’s galling is that we preach truth and reconciliation while actively executing the same systemic genocide that began 159 years ago. How can there be reconciliation when we fail to recognize the truth? Canada refused to attend and was literally the empty chair at the trials. They couldn’t even bother to attend. How can one participate a truth and reconciliation process when they won’t even acknowledge the truth?
We did learn from history—not to enlighten ourselves, but to refine our methods in the pursuit of what has plagued us for 159 years. The government didn’t study the past to prevent our worst human tendencies, but to modernize and legalize them. Until we, Canadian citizens confront the historical and current injustices inflicted on another population, we will continue to be lost.